The teaching ministry of congregations

Richard Osmer draws on the theories of a variety of major theologians, religious educators, and social scientists, creatively combining them with his own field research and insight, to construct a comprehensive, multi-layered, and integrated way to view the teaching ministry of congregations. The study seeks to be interdisciplinary, in which a conversation between two or more fields... results in the construction of a new and richer perspective on a subject matter than is available on the basis of the research and thinking of only one of these fields (60), and multidisciplinary, that is, marshalling the perspectives and analysis of many fields to understand complex, dynamic systems out of the recognition that no single frame or perspective can adequately understand everything going on in such systems (60).